Other details:This plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birdsAverage Water Needs; Water regularly; do not overwaterSelf-sows freely; deadhead if you do not want volunteer seedlings next seasonThis plant is resistant to deer

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Gardeners' Notes:

Tough, easy, adaptable, and long-blooming, this is a great garden plant. The flowers are butterfly magnets, and they make good cut flowers, in white, shades of pink, or green. Flower arrangers sometimes remove the petals and use the orangey-brown cone.

This is a short-lived, clump-forming perennial that persists in the garden through self-sowing. It isn't weedy or aggressive in its self-sowing, and extra plants are easily removed. Individual plants typically live 3-5 years, and are often replaced by their offspring unnoticed. Good drainage is essential.

The petals of the species usually droop, giving the flower a shape like a badminton shuttlecock. If you don't like the droopy look, 'Magnus' holds its petals out flat like a daisy and both self-sows and comes true from seed. The Perennial Plant Association named 'Magnus' the 1998 Perennial Plant of the Year.

Tap-rooted (and drought-tolerant once established), purple coneflowers can be moved in earliest spring before they develop much top growth. They don't survive attempts to transplant or divide them later in the season or in fall.

Though the flowers are long-lasting, the petal color tends to fade quickly after fertilization. Deadheading isn't necessary, but it can generate more flowers. Leave some to go to seed late in the season. Goldfinches and chickadees love the seeds.

Innumerable hybrids with E. paradoxa have been released in the last decade. They come in a great variety of exciting new colors and habits, and some--unlike E. purpurea---have fragrance. But so far most of them are sterile and as short-lived and as susceptible to aster yellows as the parent species. Hybrids with E. tenneseensis ancestry may be longer-lived and may be the key to developing longer-lived paradoxa hybrids.

Aster yellows is a highly contagious virus-like disease that's quickly spread by sucking insects. Plants showing symptoms should be dug out and destroyed (not composted) as soon as symptoms are noticed. The production of malformed flowers with petals sticking out of the cone is the symptom most easily noticed.

I absolutely love this plant. I think my originals were given to me by my son. I had decided to quit doing the same boring annuals every year and branch out into perennials and didn't know where to start. He had taken botany as part of his biology degree studies and was gung ho on helping me. He was living with his brother an hour from here and had planted several flower beds in his yard. He brought me starts of countless plants and showed me how to arrange them by height and color. My coneflowers are prolific, but I don't consider them invasive--they are too beautiful!. They do have a tendency to pop up in other beds, but I just leave them. I had some in another bed and dug them up to give my sister-in-law and next thing I knew, they all grew back from whatever root bits were left, so I let them be and they were happy, lol.
I pot up starts every year for my garden club's plant sale in May and they sell like the proverbial hotcakes.
It's hard for me to understand when people say they can't grow coneflowers. One of my garden club friends swears she can't grow them at all, even the ones I gave her. Yet mine spread like ground cover in some beds here at home in Dayton and at the lake, an hour N. I love purple cones with black-eyed susans and other yellow flowers--my favorite color combination.

One of my very favorite perennials that is easy, reliable, and does not need staking. This native plant is commonly sold at most garden centers in the Midwest and East USA. It can experience Aster Yellows disease, a mycoplasma spread by leafhoppers, that disfigures the flowers and upper leaves. Cut way below the infection and burn the diseased part. This plant does self sow a lot. I have one patch that appeared by itself about 20 feet from the closest ones I planted years earlier. It is easy to dig up and divide to propagate more, besides seeding. It blooms a long time, usually about 6 weeks for me in late June to early August.

A butterfly magnet! This is one of the Top 3 nectar-bearing food plants for butterflies. (The other two are butterfly weed & New England aster). Butterfly visitors include Monarchs, Fritillaries, Painted Ladies, Swallowtails, Sulfurs, and Whites.

The caterpillars of the butterfly Chlosyne nycteis (Silvery Checkerspot) feed on the foliage, while the caterpillars of several moths feed on the flowerheads. These latter species include Chlorochlamys chloroleucaria (Blackberry Looper), Eupithecia miserulata (Common Eupithecia), Synchlora aerata (Wavy-Lined Emerald), and Homoeosoma electella (Sunflower Moth).

A small songbird, the Eastern Goldfinch, eats the seeds during the summer and early fall.

I have several different cultivars in my garden. My first plants did not do so well. I moved them, even one that looked like it was dying every year. A tree had made the "sunny" only partial shade. Once in the sun, it grew well. I obtained another native (for this area) cultivar, but the gal couldn't remember the exact name. I finally have a plant the spreads if I allow it to. I use tomato cages to hold it up as it gets very tall. We love it, but it does not like to be crowded by other plants and really windy storms will knock it over if not supported.

This plant is even more reliable than Black Eyed Susans in my OKC zone 7a yard. Withstands cold, humidity, heat, and drought well. It's only enemies seem to be a leafeating larvae that sometimes appears. But they bounce back well if that happens and I can catch the larvae before they decimate the plant completely.
They do self seed occasionally but I've had good luck transplanting the babies in early spring. I experimented with the dwarf varieties but prefer the older, taller varieties as they seem less likely to mutate and produce weirdly contorted flower heads.

I love Echinacea. Even the seedheads are pretty. My only problem are the squirrels love to dig them out of the pots on my deck and eat them. Little buggers. I cover my pots that contain tasty things they like with chicken wire until they are far enough along that the rodents leave them alone.

These smell wonderful, tolerate heat and drought, survive rain and humidity, rebound from difficult winters, maintain a full clump of green foliage for the entire season, bloom for months, attract butterflies, feed the goldfinches, and multiply every year. They're a native plant and have a lovely bright color too.

I bought 3 Purple Coneflowers from Lowe's about 6 weeks ago. Planted them where they get full sun. They aren't doing ANYTHING. Haven't died, haven't grown. Mayyyyybeee 1 or 2 tiny little new leaves. Tested the soil and ph is right at 7...
And I really wanted these for the birds.

This has been my favorite for years...this year, however, I had my first taste of the dreaded yellow aster disease caused by leaf hoppers. I have literally had to dig up, at last count, 18 plants! But, I will still keep growing these.

Grows well in high altitude, dry New Mexico. Great fresh cut flowers for vases. Cut off long seed heads for dry flower arrangement. I have the style of can opener that takes off the entire can top (no sharp edges.) Collected seeds and placed in used clean cans. Taped down the top, printed a label "Vivian's Drought Tolerant Flower Seeds." Made unique Christmas gifts and party favors. Seeds are a favorite of local birds.

This is a wonderful work horse plant. Does well in full sun and shade. All most bug free but birds love the seed. My yard is mostly shade and if I can get it a little sun it will grow. Their are so many colors now and doubles that you can find a good color for your garden.

Before finding out that drinking green tea daily wards off colds, I would make a vodka tincture of this plant, a couple of dropperfuls taken at the first sign of a cold would almost always make it go away.

I never used the roots, even though most believe that they are where the strongest concentration of good things are, and just used the stems, leaves and flowers. It was plenty good and far better than any commercial preparation.

I love the plant and yes, it does self seed, but I never had any trouble with it being invasive.

This plant self sows freely, draws the bees and butterflies and even a hummingbird or 2. I leave the seed heads on the plants through out winter for the goldfinches and chickadees, who seem to enjoy them.
I like this plant, very depenable even in dought situations.

Very pretty, draws butterflies, and birds, takes the heat and clay soil I have. When I first started my garden a lady gave me a couple of clumps of these purple coneflowers. I couldnt believe she was giving them away.She did warn me about the fact that they spread like weeds.(I really didnt believe her). Those original 2 clumps turned out to be about 50 mature plants.This plant looks good paired with russian sage and black eyed susans. This is a great starter plant , when you are on a budget. It will fill up your garden and look good untill you can afford different varieties of plants and then you can pass some of them on to someone else. They can be a bit invasive, but you just have to learn to pull out the young ones like weeks if you cant find someone to take them off your hands.

I've found this plant to grow very well in sun or part shade even in the hard & dry clay soil we have in some of our gardens... Which makes it good cause its hard to find a good flowering plant to grow well in dry clay soil in part shade. It does self seed but not enough to make it a weed for me :) All in all a great plant!

This is among my favorite perennials for the following reasons:
The foliage is interesting and bold.
The flowers are unique - I love the droopy petals!!
The centers look awesome in the winter when there is snow covering just the tips.

Yes, it does tend to grow and fill space, but I think its merits sell the smaller plants to friends and it perennial swaps.

Very low water needs. Turns black when rainfall is abundant, though it does come back. Both years I've only gotten four or five flowers. No problems at all with it being invasive. Can kill it with love, put it somewhere where you won't 'accidentally' water it!

I do love this flower, it can take the hot Florida summer sun unlike many things we try to grow here. But alas, much like black-eyed-susans, they are prone to fungus in our area. The humidity here tends to kill off otherwise heat-hardy plants, except for gaillardia of course. Fortunately, echinacea reseeds, so even while some of my flowers have to be pulled out if it's been especially rainy or humid, there are always new ones on the way.

Always beautiful..... always easy...... the new or fairly new must for the garden...... will be a classic one day like roses...... well maybe not like roses but close..... newer cultivars coming out every day...... while many new cultivars are bred to be brighter or different colors....... the white I can appreciate....... Most of the colors I find unimpressive...... also they're bred for ray like blooms when I like the drooping blooms....... this plant grows very well in partial shade.......not invasive....... Good for the birds and bees :) !!!!! ........ Personally I'll always like the wilder form original best...... the paler purple and the droopy blossoms...... with all the new cultivars out there.......I advise all those to keep theres someday they may be something of a novelty........

My purple coneflowers started from one nursery bought plant and spread rapidly in my butterfly garden which has very fertile soil and full sun. It seems to be very happy and blooms over a long length of time, although the color was never very rich to begin with and the plant probably never reached it's full potenial because the petals are always detroyed by japanese beetles... but the foliage remains untouched.

Mostly smaller butterflies are drawn to this plant and of course bees and other small pollinaters along with beetles. Birds LOVE the seeds and I often can't find a single one left on the plant.

Overall, this plant is great as a nectar source, landscape plant, and seed for birds.

Easy and carefree, this plant is popular with butterflies and birds. I enjoy them so much in my garden. They do reseed with abandon, but as I have them in a 'wildflower' section, this only adds to their charm. Plus, there are always seedlings to give away.

I have enjoyed this plant for several years now. It comes back stronger and stronger every year. I do have to remove small plants each year as it tends to take over the island that I have it planted on. However, I find that the small plants make great gifts to share with others.

This lovely plant is truly gorgeous in combination with the yellow coneflower. Very hardy, does fine with just rain water, grows well in rocky soil & hillside. Beautiful in a vase. Bloom lasts forever! Have had no problem with it being invasive.

This really attracts the butterfly, more than any other flower in my garden... makes a interesting "short" (3 ft) hedge when planted in a row against a fence. They totally hid the fence with all the flowers.

Purple coneflower, as well as white, grows well in the burning hot dry area next to our driveway and didn't mind the snow abuse either. (semi-upstate New York, in a cold cleft of Stormville Mtn.) I am actually trying to find out whether the white is echinacea herb also, as I have more white than purple and put the leaves in my tea. It is not invasive (we have a problem though with sweet woodruff!) and flowers beautifully. Great for the tricky hotspots. Oh, and the deer seem to leave it alone, which is another plus for us!

Wonderful plant. Big daisy like blooms. Bees, birds, butterflies all love this plant as I do. In my garden I leave the stems up all winter for winter interest and the birds eat the seeds. My sisters and I have never had a problem with it being invasive.

Clump-forming, daisy like flowers in rosy purple, shades of pink and white. Grows to about 4' high with a spread of 1' to 2'. Centers are cone shaped and brown to orange brown. Good cut flower. Best cultivated in sun. Deadhead to encourage more flowering. Propagate by seed, cuttings or division. (They do not like to be disturbed.)